CNN
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As Kamala Harris moves more toward the political center in her presidential campaign, a 2019 poll by a leading civil rights organization sheds light on her past support for left-wing causes, such as taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.

In an American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire that then-Senator Harris filled out as a presidential candidate in 2020, she also advocated for federal decriminalization of drug possession for personal use and comprehensive cuts to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including drastic cuts to ICE funding and an indefinite commitment to “end” immigrant detention.

The questionnaire received little media attention, and an ACLU spokesperson claimed it had been online since 2019.

But the upload on the ACLU website and the page source indicate that the questionnaire was re-released last month after Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee. CNN could not find questionnaires completed by other candidates in the 2020 race that had been re-released by the ACLU.

While Harris acknowledges that some of her views have changed over time, her core beliefs have remained steadfast: “My values ​​have not changed,” she said in an interview with CNN last month.

The ACLU questionnaire, sent to all Democratic and Republican candidates during the 2020 presidential campaign, provides a clear picture of Harris’ progressive views. Some candidates, including Joe Biden, did not respond to the questionnaire. The ACLU later ran radio ads denouncing Biden for his failure to respond.

The ACLU also had volunteers interview the candidates at public town hall meetings and later posted videos of their responses on its website.

During a town hall meeting in New Hampshire in April 2019, Harris was asked by a voter if she supported the addition of a “third gender” to federal identification cards.

“Sure,” Harris replied to applause from the crowd. “I’ve been an ally my entire life and my entire career, and I see the issue of LGBTQ rights as a fundamental civil rights and human rights issue, period,” Harris said.

In her response, Harris also attacked the Trump administration’s efforts to ban transgender soldiers from the military, calling them “outrageous.”

“These are people who have decided they are willing to sacrifice and serve for our democracy and our freedom, and you want to kick them out of the military?” Harris said.

The ACLU told CNN that it does not plan to send Harris a new questionnaire this election.

The Harris campaign did not respond to questions from CNN about whether she continues to support those positions, instead issuing a statement attributable only to an unnamed “Harris campaign adviser”: “The Vice President’s positions have been shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris administration.”

They declined to elaborate on their positions.

They also made a comment attributed to a Harris campaign spokesman saying, “As president, she will take the same pragmatic approach and focus on common sense solutions in the interest of progress.”

The biggest difference between Harris’ current positions may be her new hard-line immigration rhetoric compared to her statements to the ACLU.

When asked about criminal justice reform in the questionnaire, she wrote that she would close immigration detention centers (and private prisons as well). Harris also said she supports cutting funding for ICE.

“Our immigration detention system is out of control and I believe we must end the unjustified detention of thousands of individuals, families and children,” Harris wrote. “I was one of the first senators after President Trump’s election to advocate for cutting funding for ICE.”

Harris appears to be citing her efforts in 2017 to fight against an increase in ICE funding under Trump.

Harris wrote that she introduced the Detention Oversight, Not Expansion (DONE) Act in 2018 to “increase oversight of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities, reduce detention by at least 50%, and stop funding the construction or expansion of new facilities.”

Harris also pledged to end the use of ICE warrants, which are requests by ICE for local or state law enforcement to detain a person for up to 48 hours beyond their release date so that ICE can take them into custody for possible deportation.

During the Trump administration, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency has targeted illegal immigrants, including asylum seekers, and deported them. As part of its “zero tolerance” policy, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency has expanded its use of detention centers, conducted more raids on workplaces, and arrested more illegal immigrants with no criminal records.

While the Biden-Harris administration continued to issue arrest warrants, the rate dropped sharply in the months following the inauguration in January 2021, according to data from Syracuse University.

Harris also pointed out that as California’s attorney general, she issued a directive that local law enforcement agencies were not required to comply with such warrants.

“As president, I will focus law enforcement on increasing public safety, not on tearing apart immigrant families. This includes requiring ICE to obtain a warrant when there is reasonable suspicion to end the use of warrants,” she wrote.

ICE has clashed with many so-called sanctuary cities that limited their cooperation during Trump’s presidency. In response, the Trump administration sought to withhold certain federal grants and increased its efforts to bypass local authorities in detaining and deporting illegal immigrants.

As San Francisco district attorney, Harris supported immigrant rights by defending the city’s sanctuary status, declaring at the time, “We are a sanctuary city, a city of refuge, and we will always be that way.”

However, Harris also supported a policy that would have required the handover of undocumented immigrant children to federal authorities if they were arrested on suspicion of a serious crime, regardless of conviction.

As California’s attorney general, Harris went after criminal gangs operating across the U.S.-Mexico border. She also spoke out on behalf of illegal immigrants who posed no threat to public safety and opposed Obama-era policies that could lead to the deportation of undocumented illegal immigrants.

Harris also wrote that she supports taxpayer funding for gender reassignment surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.

Harris was asked if, as president, she would use her “executive power to ensure that transgender and nonbinary people who rely on federal health care – including those in prisons and immigration detention – have access to comprehensive gender transition care, including all necessary surgical procedures.”

Harris replied, “Yes.”

“It is important that transgender people who rely on state care receive the treatment they need, including access to gender transition-related care,” Harris wrote in a response that further elaborated on her response. “That is why, as Attorney General, I have pushed the California Department of Corrections to offer gender transition surgery to state prisoners,” she wrote.

Harris said she supports allowing prisoners and detainees access to “surgical care” for gender reassignment.

“Transitional care is medically necessary and I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing basic health care to implement transitional care,” she wrote.

The first gender reassignment surgery in a federal prison took place recently in 2022 after years of legal battles.

Harris’ response represented a shift from her previous position as California’s attorney general, when she defended the California Department of Corrections’ attempts to prevent gender reassignment surgeries.

When Harris ran for president in 2019, she was criticized for her previous position.

At a press conference and later at an LGBTQ forum that same year, Harris said defending the policy went “against my beliefs,” but she was committed to defending the policy while “working behind the scenes” to change it.

Harris also stated that she supports the decriminalization of all drug possession for personal use.

Although Harris stated that she supports drug legalization, her response focused exclusively on marijuana, citing her co-sponsorship of the Marijuana Justice Act, which sought to legalize marijuana at the federal level.

She stated that drug use should be treated as a public health problem and not a criminal problem.

“Throughout my career, I have supported treating drug addiction as a public health problem, with an emphasis on rehabilitation rather than incarceration for drug offenses,” she wrote.

During her 2019 campaign, Harris admitted to using marijuana in the past while advocating for its legalization.